1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feeding structure of an antenna device formed on a window glass panel of a motor vehicle and an antenna device for a motor vehicle.
2. Related Art
Where an antenna for a band width of 1 GHz or more is formed on a window glass panel of a motor vehicle, it is desirable that the entire structure of an antenna device is implemented on the surface of a glass panel considering an antenna size. In this case, the antenna device is structured on one surface of a glass panel, because it is difficult to make a hole penetrating through the glass panel. An antenna formed on one surface of a glass panel is referred to as a planar antenna, one example thereof has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2004-214819.
Such planar antenna has been utilized for a Global Position System (GPS) antenna for receiving a signal designating a measured position from a GPS communication network for measuring the position of a motor vehicle utilizing an artificial satellite, a Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) antenna utilized for a DSRC between a roadside radio equipment and a vehicle radio equipment, and an antenna for receiving a broadcast utilizing an artificial satellite or data delivered from various information service stations, for example.
In the planar antenna, the feeding point of the antenna is needed to be connected to an amplifier in a cavity module through a coaxial feeder in order to operate an antenna device.
FIG. 1 shows a pattern of a planar antenna 8 which is composed of a hot antenna element 10 and a ground antenna element 12 surrounding the hot antenna element 10.
The hot antenna element 10 comprises an approximately rectangular opening 14 at a central portion, the outline of the hot element 10 being approximately rectangular. Two opposing corners on one diagonal line of the hot element 10 are cut away, respectively, to form perturbed portions 16a an 16b. 
The ground antenna element 12 comprises a rectangular opening 18 of a central portion, the outline thereof being rectangular. The hot antenna element 10 is located in the opening 18, and the outer periphery of the hot antenna element 10 is separated from the inner periphery of the ground antenna element 12. The planar antenna 8 is formed by a conductive material on the surface of a window glass panel of a motor vehicle.
A cavity module including an amplifier therein is mounted so as to cover the planar antenna 8. The module has a box-like shape including an opening opposed to the planar antenna 8, the inner portion thereof comprising an electronic circuitry including an amplifier. The amplifier is connected to the feeding points of the hot and ground antenna elements 10 and 12 by a coaxial feeder. These two feeding points are shown by one feeding point 19 as a representative in the figure.
The inner conductor of the coaxial feeder is connected to the hot antenna element 10 at the feeding point 19, while the outer conductor thereof is connected to the ground antenna element 12 at the feeding point 19. While respective feeding points of the hot and ground elements are provided with terminals, the attachment of the terminal to the feeding point is difficult because the size of each of the terminals is small. If a machine facility such as a robot is used for the attachment of a terminal, the manufacturing cost becomes high.
If the feeding point of the planar antenna 8 is directly connected to the amplifier in the module through a coaxial feeder, the module is not detachable from the planar antenna due to the presence of the coaxial feeder. To resolve this problem, a connector is inserted in the coaxial feeder between the feeding point of the planar antenna and the amplifier, resulting in the increasing number of components and the high cost.
In order to resolve above-described problems, it is conceivable that a capacitive feeding method may be utilized as a feeding method for a planar antenna. In this case, two capacitive feeding elements which are electrodes for capacitive feeding are provided respectively opposing to a hot antenna element and ground antenna element of a planar antenna in such a manner that the positional relationship of these capacitive feeding elements with respect to the planar antenna is to be held precisely and stably. For this purpose, the capacitive feeding elements are integrated with the cavity module mounted so as to cover the planar.
An object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a feeding structure having a mechanism to attach the feeding structure to a cavity module.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an antenna device for a motor vehicle comprising such a feeding structure.